Before he received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, before he played in the multicultural Boston band INTEROCEANICO, before all the solo albums and placing second in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2018 and 2022, Hiroya Tsukamoto was just a kid from Kyoto, Japan, who wanted to play the banjo.
“It’s not really a commonly played instrument in Japan,” Tsukamoto, 39, said by phone from his home in New York City. “That’s how I started to develop my style, though — it was a very formative experience for me.”
Then, as a teenager in the ’90s, Tsukamoto fell in love with the electric guitar and started playing in rock bands. But he never lost his affinity and talent for acoustic guitar and folk music.
His skill earned him an invitation to attend Berklee in 2000, and he left Japan for Boston. There he formed INTEROCEANICO with Colombian vocalist Marta Gómez. The group put out several albums in the early 2000s before Tsukamoto went solo. He’s since released five records, most recently 2023’s Little River Canyon, that showcase his virtuosic playing, his orchestral sense of composition and his otherworldly synthesis of traditional Japanese folk with modern techniques.
Ahead of his performance on Saturday, December 20, at Radio Bean in Burlington, Tsukamoto spoke with Seven Days about his distinctive sound and style, as well as the pros and cons of touring solo.
Watching your right hand when you play is astounding — it moves so freely when you peel off a bunch of arpeggios on the guitar.
Thank you. The [fingerpicking patterns of] banjo rolls add texture. I don’t play the banjo as much, but I still have one at home I’ll pick up. But I need to practice more!
Your style has so many elements. What do you attribute that eclecticism to?
Well, there weren’t a lot of kids playing banjo where I was from in Japan, so when I switched to playing guitar, I started playing a lot of hard rock and heavy metal. That’s actually what I still listen to when I’m driving to shows — I like to listen to really loud rock from the ’90s. I like to incorporate it all into the way I play, even if it’s subconscious sometimes.
Live, you really emerge as a storyteller, both with the songs and the way you interact with the audience. Has that approach always been part of what you do as a solo artist?
No, I developed that gradually. When I started playing solo, like, 12 years ago, I’d just get onstage and just play instrumental music. But I noticed that some people were getting bored in the middle. So at this folk festival one time, I saw this singer engage with the crowd, and it worked so well; it inspired me to do the same. I started to talk about why I had written my songs, but I also play Japanese folk music, so I’d speak about the culture and history around them.
You can hear it in your compositions, the way you’ll build a very traditional sort of backing track and then unleash all these techniques and soundscapes over them. Is it a balancing act of ancient and modern, or do you just pick up the guitar and let the influences filter out of you?
Sometimes, I just like to pick up the guitar and play in a very simple, primitive way. I studied traditional music, and my mom is a teacher who plays a traditional instrument, so I’ll try to mimic the sound of traditional instruments with my guitar.
But I also like to use a loop pedal. It helps me write. I’ll just put down a bass line and then start developing new layers until a song starts to form.
You also use it extensively live, right?
I do. When I started playing solo, the music felt empty to me sometimes. I needed something to help me create a more orchestral sound, so I picked up the looper.
It sounds like going solo changed how you play guitar.
Well, when you’re in a band and make a mistake, it’s harder for the audience to hear it. But you know it. So when I began to play by myself, I realized I was making too many mistakes. So I started doing really simple practices every single day. Just the basics, but every day, and now I don’t really make mistakes anymore. That frees me up to just play music and improvise. That was down to going solo, for sure.
Is it better or worse to be solo when touring?
It can get lonely sometimes, sure. It’s just me, a guitar and a suitcase. But I always make friends when I’m touring. People will reach out and take me hiking or show me trails; it’s really nice.
I’ve been doing this by myself for a while now, so I’ve established a circuit I play every year; I have my routine pretty worked out. But I also want to explore and find new venues. I haven’t been to Burlington in a while, so this will be interesting!
When it’s just you on the road, it can feel really freeing. I have a new album I just finished recording that’s coming out next year. If I want to perform those songs, I just do it. I don’t have to work it out with a band. And being all by yourself makes it easy to meet new people.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
Hiroya Tsukamoto, Saturday, December 20, 7 p.m., at Radio Bean in Burlington. $15. radiobean.com
The original print version of this article was headlined “Folklore and Fingerstyles | Japanese guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto synthesizes ancient folk music with modern techniques and virtuosic skill”
This article appears in The Reading Issue 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!